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There are occasions when you have problems with Internet Explorer (IE) having problems with Javascript or plugins that at least partially stem from the browser's security level, for example it can cause Drupal's Ubercart e-commerce module to not let IE users to checkout (a bad thing). For those occasions, here are all of the IE8 security settings listed out in a single table in all their gory detail.

To see them go to the Tools browser menu, click on the Internet Options menu item and then the Security tab, then click Custom Level to see how each setting is adjusted based on the specific security level.

IE Security Settings

Setting

Medium (default)

Medium-High

High

.NET Framework

Loose XAML:

enable

enable

disable

XAML browser applications:

enable

enable

disable

XPS documents:

enable

enable

disable

ActiveX controls and plugins

Allow previously unused ActiveX controls to run without prompt:

enable

disable

disable

Allow scriptlets:

disable

disable

disable

Automatic prompting for ActiveX controls:

disable

disable

disable

Binary and script behaviors:

enable

enable

disable

Display video and animation on a webpage that does not use external media player:

disable

disable

disable

Download signed ActiveX controls:

prompt (recommended)

prompt (recommended)

disable

Download unsigned ActiveX controls:

disable (recommended)

disable (recommended)

disable (recommended)

Initialize and script ActiveX controls not marked as safe for scripting:

disable (recommended)

disable (recommended)

disable (recommended)

Only allow approved domains to use ActiveX without prompt

disable

enable

enable

Run ActiveX controls and plug-ins:

enable

enable

disable

Script ActiveX controls marked safe for scripting:

enable

enable

disable

Downloads

Automatic prompting for file downloads:

disable

disable

disable

File download:

enable

enable

disable

Font download:

enable

enable

disable

Enable .NET framework setup

:

enable

enable

disable

Miscellaneous

Access data sources across domains:

disable

disable

disable

Allow META REFRESH:

enable

enable

disable

Allow scripting of Microsoft web browser control:

enable

disable

disable

Allow script-initiated windows without size or position contraints:

disable

disable

disable

Allow webpages to use restricted protocols for active content:

prompt

prompt

disable

Allow websites to open windows without address or status bars:

enable

disable

disable

Display mixed content:

prompt

prompt

prompt

Don't prompt for client certificate selection with no certificates or only one certificate exists:

disable

disable

disable

Drag and drop or copy and paste files:

enable

enable

prompt

Include local directory path when uploading files to a server:

enable

disable

disable

Installation of desktop items:

prompt (recommended)

prompt (recommended)

disable

Launching applications and unsafe files:

prompt (recommended)

prompt (recommended)

disable

Launching programs and files in an IFRAME:

prompt (recommended)

prompt (recommended)

disable

Navigate windows and frames across different domains:

disable

disable

disable

Open files based on content, not file extension:

enable

enable

disable

Submit non-encrypted for data:

enable

enable

prompt

Use Pop-up Blocker:

enable

enable

enable

Use SmartScreen Filter:

enable

enable

enable

Userdata persistence:

enable

enable

disable

Websites in less privileged web content zones can navigate into this zone:

enable

enable

disable

Scripting

Active scripting:

enable

enable

disable

Allow Programmatic clipboard access:

prompt

prompt

disable

Allow status bar updates via script:

enable

disable

disable

Allow websites to prompt for information using scripted windows:

enable

disable

disable

Enable XSS filter:

enable

enable

enable

Scripting of Java applets:

enable

enable

disable

User Authentication

Login:

Automatic logon only in Intranet zone

Automatic logon only in Intranet zone

Prompt for user name and password

FYI these were obtained from a Windows XP SP3 virtual machine and may behave differently on different versions of Windows.

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A small thing I noticed this morning is that Safari wasn't able to complete the DSM 3.0 update - after selecting the file and hitting the upload button it didn't proceed any further. Firefox 3.6, on the other hand, had no problem with the task and was only too happy to process the update. Oh, and the DSM 3.0 OS is gorgeous!

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Apple's Safari is my browser of choice on OSX - it's fast, it has a great RSS reader, and it's generally very stable. Occasionally I run into glitches with it, though.

A perfect example is what happened to me tonight. The machine had been running a bit slow having been unused all day, and when I tried to start interact with apps it was taking them a few moments to get caught up. I should note that I also am having problems with my MacBook's armrest that has started clicking the mouse button if I press on the wrong area. Anyway, while the apps were warming up I accidentally dragged the address field / address bar out of the toolbar then watched in horror as it went poof and disappeared.

Not to much of a problem, I thought, and I went to change the toolbar settings to restore it, only the Customize Toolbar window wouldn't open. Further, the "Open Location" menu item was disabled.

ARGH!

I tried searching online on ways to recover it but all of the suggestions boiled down to "reset it through the Customize Toolbar window", which obviously wasn't going to work.

Thankfully I was aware that Apple uses XML-like property-list, or "plist", files to store settings for most of its applications. I also knew that there were preferences files in the "Preferences" directory of the "Library" in my home directory, one for most of the applications I had installed, including one named "com.apple.Safari.plist".

Opening this file brings it up in OSX's Property List Editor tool which provides a tree-like interface into the various properties that have been assigned. Just what was needed.

Unfortunately the Property List Editor tool doesn't include a search so you have to just trawl through all of the settings until you find what you want, or something related, or something that might just look like fun. The problem I was having was related to the Toolbar and there was a large number of items that could be added to the toolbar, so I started looking for something with the word "Toolbar" in the name that contained sub-items, i.e. an array.

After a bit of searching I found the "dictionary" object "NSToolbar Configuration SafariToolbarIdentifier" which had the sub-property "TB Item Identifiers".

Guess what this contained - yep, you guessed it, an array of strings named "BackForwardToolbarIdentifier", "StopOrReloadToolbarIdentifier", "HomeToolbarIdentifier", "PrintToolbarIdentifier", "AddBookmarkToolbarIdentifier", "OPToolbar1Passwd", "WebSnapper" and, lastly, "InputFieldsToolbarIdentifier". My Safari toolbar only had five items, not the eight in this list, but at least it had relevant-sounding names.

A moment later I noticed that right beside this dictionary was another one named "NSToolbar Configuration BrowserWindowToolbarIdentifier", which also had an array named "TB Item Identifiers". This list was shorter.. only five items, and each of them seemed to be the items that were showing in my toolbar.. Was this what I was looking for?

Before I dug further I closed Safari so it wouldn't try to overwrite the file I was trying to manually modify. I then went to the "TB Item Identifiers" array and clicked the "Add Item" button, which added an "Item 6" entry to the array; making a guess I copied the "InputFieldsToolbarIdentifier" item from the other array and pasted it in as the value for the new "Item 6".

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When adding images to an iCollage project it is common to use its iPhoto integration and directly load images through the image selector sidebar. This sidebar is opened by clicking the Image icon in the bottom toolbar and it pops out a bar with a list of albums at the top and the images at the bottom. In theory this is would be a great system, but there's a problem - when you have a lot of photos in an album (which will happen a lot for the average user) the pane that lists the image thumbnails is sized incorrectly so you don't see the images at the bottom.

(click to view the full-size version with annotations)

Update: After submitting this bug report to Wondershare and explaining to them several times that the problem had nothing to do with resizing the images, they finally accepted there was a bug and said they would pass it to the developers to resolve. Am not holding my breath.